October, 1909.] 



303 



Fibres 



Esparto grass, straw, and wood aro 

 now largely used in the fabrication of 

 pulp suitable for printing paper ; bag- 

 ging, canvas and old rope are used for 

 brown, and other coarse papers ; but 

 hitherto no substance has been found to 

 supersede or even to satisfctorily sup- 

 plant rags for the finer kinds of paper 

 (writing and drawin g). 



In China and Japan even to the present 

 day paper is made by hand. The J apanese 

 paper is chiefly made from material de- 

 rived from a kind of mulberry (Toont) 

 (Morus payrifera sativa) and is known as 

 kadji. In China almost every province, 

 if not every district, is said to have its 

 own peculiar paper material. 



In ancient times various materials 

 were employed in India for writing. 

 Stones, bricks, wooden boards, chips 

 of bamboo, metal plates (especially 

 those of copper), and above all palm- 

 leaves and birch-bark, bhurja (Baetula 

 bhojpattr) were all in use. The last is 

 even called lekhana or "The writing 

 material," and written documents go by 

 the name of bhurja. The art of prepar- 

 ing the bark for use has now been lost ; 

 but birch-bark manuscripts are said to 

 be still common in the libraries of the 

 Kashmir pundits. They are, however, 

 very rare in the Khatmnndu Library in 

 Nepal, where most of the ancient 

 manuscripts are found written on palm- 

 leaves. 



Skins of animals so common in other 

 countries were not much in vogue in 

 India, probably on account of their being 

 ritually impure. Alburini, who visited 

 India with Mahmud of Ghazni and gave 

 a detailed account of the manners and 

 customs, science and literature, arts and 

 industries of the people of this country, 

 expressly says, " The Hindus are not in 

 the habit of writing on hides like the 

 Greeks in ancient times." A reference 

 to this practice is implied in the 

 reply given by Socrates when he was 

 questioned as to why he did not com- 

 pose books : " I don't transfer know- 

 ledge," said he, "from the living hearts 

 of men to the dead hides of sheep." 



The use of well-beaten cotton cloth as 

 a writing material by the Hindus i« 

 mentioned by Nearchus who was one of 

 the generals of Alexander the Great. 

 The Kanarsese traders still use for their 

 books of business a kind of cloth called 

 kadatam, which is covered with a paste 

 of tamarind seed, afterwards blackened 

 with charcoal. The letters are written 

 with chalk or steatite pencils, and the 

 writing is white on black (Mysore Coorg 

 Gazetteer, 1877, 1, 408). 



The manufacture of paper in Europe 

 was first established by the Moors in 

 Spain, In Italy also the art of paper- 



making was no doubt in the first place 

 established through the Arab occupa- 

 tion of Sicily. Paper, however, con- 

 tinued to be made by hand till at the 

 close of the 18th century Louis Robert, a 

 clerk in the employment of Messrs. 

 Didst, of the celebrated Essonnes paper- 

 mills near Paris, invented machinery for 

 making the process continuous. This 

 was the greatest advance in the history 

 of the industry, aiid modern paper- 

 making may be said to date from that 

 time. 



The first authentic account of paper- 

 making in India dates from the time of 

 the Emperor Akbar, when the art is said 

 to have been introduced into Kashmir. 

 It spread rapidly all over India and 

 displaced the birch-bark and palm-leaves 

 that were previously used for writing. 

 The Persian word for paper, ' kagaj,' 

 has been adopted in most Indian langu- 

 ages. This also points to the Mahomedan 

 introduction of the industry. Tbe 

 Sanskrit word for that which is used for 

 writing upon is patra, the same as pata 

 in Bengali. 



It is probable, however, that the art 

 ol paper making came from China to the 

 inhabitants of Eastern Himalaya long 

 anterior to the introduction of the pap^r 

 industry into Kashmir by Akbar. 

 Rajendra Lala Mitra asserts that a 

 " letter- writer " by King Bhoja of Dhara 

 proves its use in Malwa during the 11th 

 century A. D. (Gough's papers, 16). This 

 King, it may be mentioned, reigned from 

 1106 to 1142 (?) and was one of the Hindu 

 Chiefs who fought Mahmud of Ghazni. 

 At any rate paper had not yet become 

 common in India, unlike in Mahomedan 

 countries, at this time. 



Paper manuscripts, dated Vikrama- 

 Samvat 1384 and (A. D, 1394, 1327-28 and 

 1337-38), the leaves of which are cut 

 according to the size of palm-leaves, 

 have been discovered by Peterson at 

 Anhilvad Patan. It is very doubtful if 

 any of the ancient manuscripts from 

 Kashgar which are written on a peculiar 

 paper, covered with a layer of gypsum, 

 are of Indian origin ; Dr. Hoenle believes 

 that all of them were written in Central 

 Asia. 



During his recent visit to Khatmnndu 

 Pandit Haraprasad Shastri acquired a 

 Sauskrit manuscript belonging to the 

 11th century A. D., written on Nepal 

 paper. 



It may be interesting to mention that 

 paper is made in Nepal partly from 

 bamboo and partly from the bark of a 

 small thorny shrub known as Mahadeva's 

 flower (Daphne cannabi?ia). The surface 

 is made glossy by rubbing with a smooth 

 piece of stone. The Daphne paper is 

 generally very thick and is made thicker 



